Artistic Adventures™️ & misc. nonsense

Lauren Toner xoxo

[laurensartandstuff]

{acrylic paint on stretched canvas}

I wanted to continue with some sort of dream imagery again - and it’s getting more and more abstract (which I love)

I spent longer with this one focusing on more defined forms and tones, and I just enjoyed the whole process. It became almost dreamlike in itself - I became entranced in creating, painting, and just letting go of any pressure I always hold over myself.

So I guess we could call this one a success? Yeah.

Also, go follow my new art account on instagram (like right now… if you want) - @ loz.tarts

[laurensartandstuff]

Oil paint, dried acrylic paint, black sharpie marker on 22.8x30.4cm primed canvas

Bit of a personal one today my guys.

Still focused on texture and simplified (abstract) shapes. Incorporating more meaning and emotion as a product of said texture and shape. Distancing from Gillian Ayers work to make it more *me*.

Wanting to add emotion = first childhood nightmare!!! :)

So I really sat with this one, I have very mixed feelings with this as it doesn’t look as though I spent time on it but… yeah. It became very personal, I no longer thought about if it looked good, but rather if it was conveying what it represents; how I’m feeling; how I felt; the dream world of the young child that experienced it.

In a way I feel as though the written story/notes that I wrote almost accompanies the painting to create the whole piece. Of course it adds context; context=relevance and all. But the relevance and importance of the notes accompanying the painting feels like it has another origin; more than just context. I’m not quite sure just yet, but it’s as though it helps the viewer to delve into it with me. Like a psychoanalysis of me as a person, or at least a part of me, which adds to the expression I wanted to convey. It adds another tool for me to work with in order to change and alter how I want people to view my work and perhaps to make them feel something or remember something.

To experience.

[laurensartandstuff]

••• New work in progress closeup •••

[oil paint on canvas]

[laurensartandstuff]

Considering the idea of adding objects to my paintings/canvases/pages. [Dried acrylic paint pictured]

Further applying to this idea of texture and ‘anti-flatness’.

[laurensartandstuff]

Ma joie vient de la nouveauté de mon émotion

[my joy comes from the novelty of my emotion]

[laurensartandstuff]

My instinct; my urge... was to fill the page. I told myself not today. *Focus on the shapes and texture™️, Lauren*

Closeups of shapes & texture™️

[Acrylic on cartridge paper, using brushes and then palette knives that my mother bought me for chimbo] Wanting to venture back to oil paints on canvas = Lovely impasto techniques; lovely layers; lovely texture™️. *chef’s kiss* Really enjoying the process and self-discovery through this experimentation - rather than having my focus on if it looks good or not… Importance ≠ does it look good, ‘beautiful’? Importance = does it make me feel something?

[laurensartandstuff]

Experimentations... 0.1

So, I started some experiments (rough quick drafts).

I intentionally challenged myself to go into it with no plan or 'goal' for how I wanted my little ideas to look - in order to identify and relate to myself as an artist a person I want to stop restricting myself and just start *making*.

Being inspired by Gillian Ayres' 'Papua', I wanted to focus purely on shapes, and how varying forms can create the sense of objects on the page (or on any other media). This focus on shape eventually formed into an interest in how those shapes and forms morphed into something more when I created texture™️ - I found that I could create different textures at different stages of the paint drying; I'd like to experiment further with this soon...

Image attachments to come...

[laurensartandstuff]

Just some juicy texture pics of Gillian Ayres' 'Papua'

crunchy; wavy; sickly

[laurensartandstuff]

Found this treasure of an oil painting in the Laing Art Gallery [Newcastle]. Artist: Gillian Ayres. |British abstract painter|Hailed from the great kingdom of London| Who is she? What is she like? Well, when asked what her artwork was about, she just listed random things like ice cream, cakes, seaweed, shells and hats... To be fair her parents did own a hat factory... Imo more paintings should be about cakes and ice cream and beautiful little shells you find on the beach. If her process wasn't inspiring enough for you, she also gives names to her children paintings after she finishes them, all based on what they make her feel emotionally and anything it reminds her of.

quick notes: What I am attracted to in this piece- →The size & impact this canvas has (dramatic!!) [hangs at a large scale of H 274.3 x W 274.4 cm] →The colours, oh, the colours! - natural, biologically similar to life and bodies (reds, pinks, white) - unnatural & jarring [?] (neon yellow, orange, vibrant lilacs) - dull & boring [in a sense, don't be offended] (grey, mud brown, khaki) - exciting & energised (blues of varying tones and hues, turquoises and all that lovely stuff) →The patterns and shapes (possibly my favourite aspect) - odd and unpredictable. - confusing and playful; breaking those cursed boundaries. - natural and unnatural. - CONFLICTING YET DECISIVE.

More on Gillian later...